Well, did I mean the action-y parts. I mean, the Music of the Ainur is interesting and all, but it’s not really so filmable.
But Beren and Luthien? Fingolfin vs. Morgoth? The sack of Gondolin?
It would be so awesome. (And approximately 100 hours long. At least.)
I would also like a full rendition of Les Miserables. Give the Thenardiers and the Friends of the ABC their proper screen time (I always had a crush on Enjolras).
Frederick Forsyth’s The Devil’s Alternative. It’d have to be a “period piece” now about a tense US-USSR situation, but the Pres. reminds me of Bush II – “He convinced the voters that he was The Boy Next Door. But he wasn’t. He was The Man at the Top, and he knew it.” A wonderfully complexd Forsyth outing, featuring an escape from Russia, an assasination, a Bank Robbery, the hijacking of the world’s largest Oil Tanker, the threat of WWIII, double agents, and an ultimatum, all of it far too complex to be handled in a movie of reasonable length. Only a mini-series could do it justice. And, oh, yeah – there’s a twist at the end.
L. Sprague de Camp’s An Elephant for Aristotle – Alexander the great conquers the western border of India and decides to send a War elephant back to his tutor, the philosopher Aristotle. (As de Camp argues, something like this may very well have happened). The story tells of the poor officer with an inadequate company of soldiers who has to schlep the recalcitrant beast by foot all the way from India through mountains, deserts, over rivers and seas and frequently hostile country back to Greece.
Raymond F. Jones’s This Island Earth – not a remake of the 1955 film, but a proper adaptation of the book, wriiten and performed for an adult audience.
The Belgariad
Jason and the Argonauts and other Greek Myths
The Legend of Maui
Hallmark did this, albeit as a shortened one-parter.
And now that Troy has come out, don’t look for anyone to do The Iliad.
How about
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. But only the first trilogy. And do it right.
Heinlein’s the Past Through Tomorrow. They don’t have to do it all – just a few good parts.
Harry Turtledove’s World War. Epic Science Fiction/Alternate History. It’s already episodic.
Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – to my knowledge, not one adaptation of this approaches accuracy.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear. There have been adaptations of this, but a lot time ago and pretty obscure. The one Sherlock Holmes story that never seems to get adapted – and it even has Moriarty!
The latter has already been done - one of the UK channels, perhaps C4, did an animated series that covered it. It worked surprisingly badly, given the quality of the book. Admittedly, I’ve only watched it once, and I was very tired at the time, so possibly I’m being overly harsh.
My choice re: the OP
- Janny Wurts/Raymond E. Feist’s Empire trilogy. It would need a big budget to properly convey the alienness of Tsuranuanni, but I think it would be worth it.
What a surprise to see you recommend this 
.
Ayn Rand’s ATLAS SHRUGGED
Bram Stoker’s DRACULA
THE BIBLE
Moderator mumbles under his breath:
I have no idea what happened or why, and I’m on the run so I don’t have time to check it out, but I have merged the two threads. So, I may not know the cause, but (I hope) I’ve got a solution.
I can’t believe I’m the first one to say, Serenity (as a series). It would be such a beautiful thing, and a story to rival the Family Guy comeback. Maybe if we just wish hard enough . . .
I’d like to see the ideas in *Dawn of the Dead/Land of the Dead * more meticulously covered. Less emphasis on gore and shocks, a bit more on how people would really cope with such a monumental disaster, and of course, how the haves & have-nots would shake out (more realistically).
I own it. You aren’t being harsh…it stunk. Which is why I want it to get the full-scale HBO treatment. Besides, it would let us fight over who would make the better Magrat! 